


Past Experience

by Tarlan



Category: Eureka, Primeval: New World
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, M/M, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-30
Updated: 2016-04-30
Packaged: 2018-06-05 11:39:38
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6703198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tarlan/pseuds/Tarlan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nathan ends up in another time line following the Weinbrenner disaster and he finds a man who is the spitting image of Jack Carter, except this man is a brilliant scientist. It can't be Jack... can it?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Past Experience

**Author's Note:**

> For **Trope Bingo** round 6: crossover

In general humans saw time as something flowing in just the one direction but Nathan knew it was simply the human perception of the fourth dimension that made it seem as if it was a straight line from birth to death. Weinbrenner wanted to prove otherwise by capturing a single photon and freezing it in time, unaware of the catastrophic effects this would have on the rest of the universe until it was too late. Resetting the photon to move forward in time meant resetting everything contained inside the time chamber, and that included himself after he was forced to reset it manually.

He didn't expect to still exist, but not only was he still alive but he was definitely not in Kansas anymore - to quote an old movie - or Oregon either, judging by the mingled herds of creatures feeding in the valley below that looked remarkably like Triceratops and Ankylosaur. They had roamed parts of North America and Canada in the Late Cretaceous period, approximately 68 million years ago, but it was at a time when Oregon was still covered by an ocean. If he had been thrown millions of years into the past then Nathan had no idea how he was going to get back to his own time period. In fact he had no idea what he was going to do at all, or even if he could survive in a period of time close to the biggest extinction level event known to mankind.

He'd seen a flash of light in the distance, briefly, but the sky was clear with not a cloud in sight so it couldn't have been a lightning strike and hopefully not a meteor strike, but it piqued his curiosity enough to have him walking in that direction. At the very least he might find a cave to shelter in as he doubted he could survive out in the open. Just as he was about to head down, aware that he would have to cross the animal trail, he saw the herd jerk up their heads and start calling, starting a stampede of animals that he could feel as vibration beneath his feet. His dress shoes were not made for the terrain and he slipped onto his ass, frozen as a carnivore attacked the herd, snapping at one of the smaller animals but eventually cornering a Ankylosaur. Nathan watched in both fascination and horror as the herbivore fought back, landing a brutal blow with the bony club of his tail and knocking the predator off its feet. By the time it scrabbled back upright its prey had gone, catching up with the rest of the herd.

Nathan remained motionless, aware that although it was smaller than a T-rex and did not have binocular vision, if could still chase him down easily, and unlike the Ankylosaur, he had no natural weapon for defense other than his brain. The Albertosaur shook to loosen the dust clinging to it and ambled off behind the herd, likely watching for another opportunity, and that was when Nathan caught movement in the trees edging against the animal trail. Something far smaller than Triceratops and Albertosaurus. Something the size of a man.

He blinked, unable to believe his eyes when he realized it was a man who looked very familiar to him, even at this distance.

Carter.

Nathan huffed out a breath in relief, wanting to know who he could thank for the rescue as he made his way down the side of the valley towards Carter. He waved when Carter spotted him, confused when the man turned and started running away. Mindful of the danger he could be in from unknown predators, Nathan raced after him, his longer legs and time spent on the treadmill each morning paying off as he closed the distance. Carter glanced back at him, pushing harder to escape but Nathan caught up and brought him down.

"Carter!" he yelled, breath heaving from the exertion but Carter looked back up at him with no trace of familiarity, breathing just as heavily. "Jack?"

Carter finally seemed to catch his breath. "Who's Jack? And who the hell are you?"

Nathan sat back, straddling the man he believed to be Jack Carter. He looked the same, right down to the sad, puppy dog blue eyes and short sandy brown hair but there was no recognition in his eyes. If anything he seemed a little manic compared to Carter's usual testosterone-fueled anger due to what Barlowe had called Carter's entitlement issues.

"You look like someone... Who are you?" Nathan asked softly, slowly backing off and moving to one side to allow the man to sit up.

"Howard Kanan."

Nathan stretched out his hand. "Nathan Stark."

Kanan frowned in that identical way to his Jack Carter. "Stark? Nobel award winning Nathan Stark whose work on Artificial Intelligence revolutionized the world of robotics?"

Nathan blinked. "Yes."

Kanan reached out to shake his hand before scanning the area around them. "We can't stay here. The worst predators are crepuscular."

Nathan blinked because he wasn't used to words of more than a few syllables coming out of Carter's mouth, and he almost replied sarcastically, except this wasn't Carter. He might look like a clone of the Sheriff but everything else about him was subtly wrong. Thoughts of Beverly Barlowe led to her Virtual Reality device and for a moment he wondered if he merely thought he was in the Cretaceous Period when he was actually sitting in his office chair or lying on his bed, lost in a world created by her therapy device. If he was then he could see no sign of an exit.

Cart... Kanan was on his feet, holding out a hand to Nathan and he took it, allowing Kanan to pull him back to his feet. He saw Kanan check him out from head to toe, confused by his clothing.

"Long story," Nathan murmured, and Kanan nodded, indicating for Nathan to follow.

Later, while sitting in a cave roasting some small animal over a fire, Nathan told his story, surprised when Kanan asked intelligent questions and started to work on the math using chalk rock on the flattest part of the cave wall. Kanan talked mostly to himself as he worked but accepted Nathan's changes and observations with minor arguments, quickly forming a set of equations that had taken Weinbrenner months to figure out, and only then after he had incorporated some of Walter Perkin's work. The man standing before him, scrawling in chalk on a wall was as brilliant as Kevin.

"How did you get here?" Nathan asked finally.

"Huh?" Kanan glanced around the cave as if seeing it for the first time.

"How did you get here? In the Cretaceous Period," Nathan added, knowing Kanan could not have been here long because his clothing was still in reasonably good shape and his face was mostly clean-shaven, so his razor hadn't blunted or run out of battery power yet. Perhaps a week, maybe two at most.

Kanan blinked rapidly as if confused at having to provide an explanation. "Through the anomaly."

"Anomaly?"

He listened as Kanan launched into a scientific explanation, talking of the bridges to other time periods opening up on Earth, and the harmonics he had used to track one and determine how long it would remain open, still not quite able to separate this man from someone who could have been his physical twin. 

"Is there a way back?"

"I... don't know. I'm working on a theory. I think I may be able to open an anomaly but I don't have the equipment..." his voice trailed off as Nathan removed his tablet and cell phone from the inner pocket of his jacket.

"Maybe these can help?"

Kanan snatched them up eagerly, pulling a small toolset out of his backpack. When he looked up at Nathan, his smile took Nathan's breath away, making him wish he'd seen Jack smile at him that way, but he knew that was his fault.

They spent the next two weeks working through the math and building the device, venturing out to trap smaller animals for food when it was reasonably safe, or when Nathan insisted on them stopping so they could take a step back and work on the problem from a fresh angle. Sitting on the hillside, he loved to watch the herds moving in the valley below, still unable to believe what he was seeing. They had one scary moment when a smaller predator followed the blood scent of their recent kill back to the cave but they managed to scare it off using fire and sharpened sticks as a weapon, but it was a firm reminder that humans were not meant to be here. Sometimes at night Nathan sat by the cave's entrance and glanced up at a sky full of stars, and Kanan often joined him. When the nights grew cooler as the weeks passed, they gravitated towards each other, and it seemed the most natural thing in the world when Kanan - Howard - leaned in one night as they sat close to the fire, and kissed him. Any remaining thoughts of a life with Allison fell away as he pressed down on Howard, hands moving over firm muscle, fumbling aside clothing so they could thrust against each other, and feeling that incredible moment of peace as his orgasm stopped his brain from thinking for a few precious moments.

After that first time it became easier, working together during the day, and releasing all that pent up energy at night, lost in the pleasure of each others touch.

It was while they were lying replete and lethargic after sex, talking of the past, that Nathan finally figured out why Howard Kanan and Jack Carter were so similar. They were the same man. Howard had been adopted as a baby by a family who later moved to Canada, whereas Jack Carter was brought up in California. In Howard's history, he was taken from his biological parents by the court system after he was left unattended one time too many.

"Apparently I could have drowned, or ended up brain damaged," he remarked. 

Nathan felt sick inside as he'd once sarcastically asked Jack if he was born stupid or dropped on his head as a child. He knew the answer to that question now, and it certainly explained where Zoe gained her exceptional intelligence, and not just from her mother. However, it meant something had changed the time line and the Jack Carter he knew had ceased to exist. It made him hold Howard closer and tighter that night, not wanting to let him go in case he disappeared forever.

Two months after arriving in the past Nathan noticed that one 'star' in particular seemed to be growing larger in the sky with each passing day. Except the stars didn't change that rapidly and as man didn't exist it had to be something natural moving fast towards the planet. An asteroid on a collision course with Earth, he thought sickly.

"Howard?" He waited until Howard looked at him. "We have a problem."

Nathan estimated they had barely a week before the asteroid hit, knowing this could be the event that brought an end to the dinosaurs and so many other species on Earth. Even if they survived the impact, the dust cloud would likely block out the sun, killing vegetation and making it harder for them to forage and hunt for food. They worked harder, and with the asteroid now a huge, ominous presence in the sky above them, Howard put the final pieces together.

"Here goes nothing," he stated, aiming the device just ahead of them.

Nathan watched as the chard layer formed around the fracture in time and space, opening an anomaly that could lead back to their own time if their calculations were correct. They had only one means of testing what might exist on the other side having used all the equipment to create the anomaly device. Nathan picked up the long branch he had prepared earlier that day. At its end was a small cage containing a tiny shrew-like creature. He stuck it through the anomaly and they counted off a few minutes before drawing it back, smiling happily at each other as the little creature scurried around its cage, still healthy. It proved the air beyond the anomaly was breathable. Grabbing their few belongings they stepped through, prepared to experience whatever awaited them in the past, present or future... together.

END  
 


End file.
